Blue Bay Village

The grounds and complex are lovely, with soft white sand on the beach and a large, beautiful pool. Everything is spotless, well tended, and nicely decorated. It's more like a club than a hotel: there's no room service, but the restaurant has a very good buffet and attentive staff. The place is run by Italians and most guests are Italian, though they translate into English when they can. Valentina was especially effective and professional. They arranged a perfect special dinner for us on the beach. We had a really good family stay, despite a lukewarm start with rooms that weren't very good. They were also quite insistent that we leave the room on time, if possible early. Aside from that, there wasn't anything to complain about. Without that start, it would've been perfect, but it came close anyway.

Food service was frustrating. Some dishes ran out quickly, and staff were slow to replace the plates. Meal windows were restrictive: lunch and dinner each had only a 1.5 hour slot, dinner started at 8 PM or later and was never on time. Breakfast ends at 10, which is also checkout time. I was disappointed with the stay and felt Italian guests were prioritized. The spa menu and other attractions were in Italian, which made them hard to navigate, and staff had limited English, often speaking Italian, so it was difficult to explain what guests needed. On our private safari, our car wasn't allowed to drop us properly at the lobby, while we saw safari cars for other guests go right up. It felt like poor treatment of non-Italian guests. I also haven't seen a good hotel charge for WiFi in the room. Service quality was poor overall, and if you don't speak Italian, be prepared for these inconveniences.

This place is gorgeous, but we haven't been able to sleep. Beach clubs blast music all night, and then the mosque broadcasts prayers from 4 to 5:30 every morning. We're exhausted. This hasn't felt like a restful holiday.

It was awful to watch. Seaweed washes up on the beach in front of the hotel every day, with loads of plastic mixed in. Hotel staff gather the seaweed and plastic and throw it about 50 meters back into the sea so the beach looks “clean” for guests. Then all that plastic ends up in the water again. Really sad.